Summary:
In exchange for Mai’s life, Maki broke away from the cursed energy. Her strength now resembles that of Toji Zenin, but Naoya sees her as nothing more than a fraud. The conflict escalated over the fight for the Zenin clan and became a battle of who would stand next to Toji and Satoru Gojo as the strongest.
Plot:
When Naoya was a child, he was constantly pampered and praised by his family members. He was recognized as a genius and many always believed that he would rise to become the head of the clan after Naobit.
Naoya heard about the black sheep in the Zenin clan that had no cursed energy and went to see how pitiful that person must look. However, Naoya was physically shaken when she saw Toji’s cold, focused and dispassionate eyes.
Maki gained strength comparable to Toji and used it to destroy most of the Zenin Clan’s strongest fighters. At the climax of the conflict, she is confronted by Naoya, who sends a series of rapid punches her way in a split second. Maki is able to fend off most of them and tries to count the number of moves at that moment, but is interrupted and caught by Naoya, causing her to freeze inside the frame. Using extreme speed, Naoya kicks Maki through several large stone structures surrounding Zenin Manor. Naoya is adamant that Maki is not Toji regardless of her empowerment.
Naoya understands that the sin of insignificant people is their ignorance of power. Everyone misjudged Toji due to his lack of cursed energy, and Naoya doesn’t believe anyone understood him except Satoru.
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Using his cursed technique, Naoya continues to gain strength, overwhelming Maki with one swift move after another. Naoya is eager to prove that he is the one who will stand with Toji and Satoru as one of the strongest, not Maki. Despite her enhanced abilities, Maki is hurt by Naoya’s attacks and struggles to keep up, admitting that the situation is getting worse.
Projection Sorcery does not allow the user to blatantly ignore the laws of physics or trajectories. There is also an upper limit to the user’s acceleration when they activate the technique. However, keeping Projection Sorcery activated allows for a smooth speed increase. Unlike his fight with Chos, Naoya doesn’t stop building speed this time. He understands that strength equals weight and speed and plans to blast through Maki at maximum speed, which has already become supersonic.
Maki gained a steel body that broke away from the cursed energy in exchange for Mai’s life, but is still injured from the fight with Ogi and Hei. At a disadvantage, Maki welcomes the head-on collision and takes the stance of the Shiranui-Gata technique. She will try to take the brunt of Naoya’s supersonic attack to stop his movements, even if it means sacrificing a few ribs.
Naoya, who seems to have seen through Maki’s defensive strategy, palmed her instead. When he does so, his cousin will follow the 24 frames per second rule of Projection Sorcery. Failure to do so means you will freeze inside the frame for one second.
Naoya, still moving at top speed and only seeing his opponent as an impostor, believes that Maki is frozen and prepares to finish her off. However, Maki is not frozen and even adheres to the 24 frames per second rule. Her new body allows her to see that Naoya can move twenty-four times a second and move fast enough to not freeze.
Maki turns and counterattacks, catching Naoya’s path with a fist as his face approaches her strike at top speed. Naoya tries to call Maki a cheater, but smashes his face into the ground with an incredibly savage punch that ends the fight. Since Naoya didn’t have time to finish his statement, Maki asks her bloodied and defeated cousin to repeat it.